Shuttle Debris Hunted In Sea

Space Officials Remain Silent On Blast`s Cause

January 30, 1986|By Michael Hirsley, Chicago Tribune.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — Eight ships and nine planes of the Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force continued to search a wide ocean area Wednesday for debris from Tuesday`s explosion of space shuttle Challenger.

``Dozens of pieces have been found, but they are extremely small,`` said Lt. Cmdr. Jim Simpson, head of the recovery effort that covers a 5,500-square- mile area of the Atlantic. He said the largest piece was 12 feet by 4 feet. He said he did not know what part of the shuttle and its support system it came from.

Much of the debris were pieces of the protective tile that shielded the shuttle from the heat of re-entry. All the recovered items were being taken to Patrick Air Force Base for investigation.

At a press conference Wednesday, NASA officials declined to speculate on possible causes of the midair explosion or to assess how severely NASA`s ambitious shuttle schedule would be affected by the greatest tragedy in the agency`s 25 years of rocket launches.

William Graham, acting NASA administrator, said no ``long-range conclusions`` would be made while investigators sift through reams of information, including computer data detailing the shuttle`s flight status and performance in milliseconds.

However, Graham said, ``I assure you this loss will not stop us as Americans from exploring the frontiers of science and the frontiers of space.``

All NASA space travel has been suspended pending investigation of the explosion. ``We intend to go forward with the space program,`` Graham said.

``We also intend to clearly understand what happened with yesterday`s Challenger launch.``

Jesse Moore, NASA associate administrator for space flight, said he was

``not prepared to speculate`` on reports that a loose metal fragment, such as a bolt, struck the shuttle`s fuel tank and ignited it; or that liftoff was slower than normal, perhaps because of icing.

``It`s clearly too early for us to speculate,`` he said. ``We clearly don`t want to zero in on something prematurely and say that`s it, and not get the prime cause. We are after the prime cause.``

Moore said the top priorities are to make sure that ``we are not overlooking any pieces of evidence`` and that all data surrounding Tuesday`s 74-second mission ``is preserved in as pristine a condition . . . as we possibly can.``

He expressed a ``high degree of confidence that we are going to find``

the accident`s cause.

Also at the press conference was Richard Smith, director of the Kennedy Space Center. He urged civilian ``souvenir hunters`` who find suspicious debris on beaches or in the water here to turn the material over to authorities.

Smith said one of the solid booster rockets detached from the shuttle by the explosion had to be detonated by safety officers because it threatened a populated area. He did not elaborate.

Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Nicholson, representing the Defense Department, said officers pressed a button at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to activate a detonator aboard the rocket. ``The booster was out of control,`` he said. ``It represented a threat to the coastline in general.``

Challenger exploded in a fireball 74 seconds after liftoff here at 10:38 a.m. Chicago time Tuesday, carrying what was left of the vehicle and the fate of its seven crew members into the ocean 18 miles down range.

The deaths of Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire teacher, and her six colleagues were the worst disaster in space flight.

An analysis of videotapes of the accident sequence revealed a small ball of orange flame blooming near the bottom of Challenger`s 154-foot-long external fuel tank, which at launch was filled with 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen.

Then, a fraction of a second later, another larger ball of orange fire appeared higher on the other side of the aluminum tank. One second after the initial eruption, the fireballs merged into a bright yellow and red mass of flame that engulfed Challenger.

The two booster rockets emerged, apparently intact, from the cloud of fire and smoke and corkscrewed through the sky before being detonated.

Launch and Mission Control team members here and at Johnson Space Center in Houston were polled immediately after the explosion, and all said they saw ``nothing unusual up to that point,`` Moore said Tuesday.

He said he made the final decision to launch Tuesday. It followed a two-hour delay to repair an electronic malfunction in the shuttle`s fire extinguisher system and to ascertain that icicles on the launch tower posed no threat to launch.

Asked if Challenger might have been launched in less-than-perfect conditions because of NASA`s ambitious schedule of 15 shuttle launches this year, Moore said, ``There was absolutely no pressure to get this particular launch up.``